We cannot forget ourselves
 |
Description
Book Introduction
- A word from MD
-
A new essay by Kim Min-cheol, a traveler who recordsKim Min-cheol, author of "Travel Every Day of the Week," sends a letter filled with memories from his past travels.
Recall unforgettable travel moments, reminiscing about the scenery and precious relationships you first encountered in an unfamiliar place.
Now that travel has stopped, we are left to look through our travel photos on our phones, dreaming of the day we can leave again.
April 2, 2021. Essay PD Kim Tae-hee
“The word that everyone desperately wanted to be released has been released.
It is ‘travel.’”
Kim Min-cheol, who conveys the feeling of travel that the meaning becomes clearer only after losing it.
A collaboration edition of Kimi & Il-ee that will make you look forward to the new destination you will be leaving for!
Kim Min-cheol's "We Can't Forget Ourselves," which soothes the longing for a journey that cannot be freely taken, returns in a summer edition with illustrations by Kimi & Il, which bring an innocent feeling with bright colors.
This edition, which includes the painting "Pink Table," which evokes a leisurely rest while traveling, includes a special handwritten letter from author Kim Min-cheol to readers who have embraced a daily life that allows them to travel anywhere.
"We Can't Forget Ourselves" is full of small, magical lights of coincidence that we have no way to find again and no promise of meeting again.
Just like Kimi and Il, who find comfort in the everyday while traveling in search of the extraordinary, I hope that this summer, as I embark on a journey as a new traveler, my destination will be a place where I can meet a more relaxed version of myself, a slightly less famous one, and a slightly more reckless version of myself.
Even when I was buried in the daily grind of countless questions and choices, imagining the hypothetical, "If I ever get there," was the most effective panacea.
One day, as I was going back and forth between pessimism and optimism, having lost the comfort of leaving without any plans for my next vacation, I saw a video of people singing on a balcony.
I thought of the people I believed would always be there waiting for me, and the scenery I longed for.
I thought of us, who didn't hesitate to take risks in unfamiliar cities, and who always readily expressed gratitude to those who were always the first to lend a hand in embarrassing situations.
For us now who cannot forget who we were back then, Kim Min-cheol decided to begin a journey through time and memories.
Here, I wanted to find a way to be happy together.
For those of us who are just looking through photos of past trips on our phones, and more than anything, to gather our own share of hope.
It is ‘travel.’”
Kim Min-cheol, who conveys the feeling of travel that the meaning becomes clearer only after losing it.
A collaboration edition of Kimi & Il-ee that will make you look forward to the new destination you will be leaving for!
Kim Min-cheol's "We Can't Forget Ourselves," which soothes the longing for a journey that cannot be freely taken, returns in a summer edition with illustrations by Kimi & Il, which bring an innocent feeling with bright colors.
This edition, which includes the painting "Pink Table," which evokes a leisurely rest while traveling, includes a special handwritten letter from author Kim Min-cheol to readers who have embraced a daily life that allows them to travel anywhere.
"We Can't Forget Ourselves" is full of small, magical lights of coincidence that we have no way to find again and no promise of meeting again.
Just like Kimi and Il, who find comfort in the everyday while traveling in search of the extraordinary, I hope that this summer, as I embark on a journey as a new traveler, my destination will be a place where I can meet a more relaxed version of myself, a slightly less famous one, and a slightly more reckless version of myself.
Even when I was buried in the daily grind of countless questions and choices, imagining the hypothetical, "If I ever get there," was the most effective panacea.
One day, as I was going back and forth between pessimism and optimism, having lost the comfort of leaving without any plans for my next vacation, I saw a video of people singing on a balcony.
I thought of the people I believed would always be there waiting for me, and the scenery I longed for.
I thought of us, who didn't hesitate to take risks in unfamiliar cities, and who always readily expressed gratitude to those who were always the first to lend a hand in embarrassing situations.
For us now who cannot forget who we were back then, Kim Min-cheol decided to begin a journey through time and memories.
Here, I wanted to find a way to be happy together.
For those of us who are just looking through photos of past trips on our phones, and more than anything, to gather our own share of hope.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Prologue - A Journey from a Far Away Time and Place
The Man Who Turns Chance into Destiny (San Francisco, USA) - To You Who Has Never Met
The Moment I Lost My Destination (Gamakura, Japan) - To My Brother
Traveler's Promise (Bonnieux, France) - To B
A Star on the Forehead (Venezia, Italy) - To Gyu-seong
I came here to see all of this (Ragusa, Sicilia) - To Eunji
It will be a day of loneliness (Arles, France) - To the grandfather of Lourmarin
As long as we carry the soul of a traveler (Palermo, Sicilia) - to the owner of Dante's bookstore or Bisso Restaurant
The luck of traveling to the same city twice (Marvao, Portugal) - To Team Leader Park Woong-hyun
Nowhere but here (Lyon, France) - To Surim
Shipwrecked by Beauty (Porto, Portugal) - To the round, swaggering old man of Porto
After a few seasons (Aran islands, Ireland) - To Bomi
Love is delicious, Slancha! (Dublin, Ireland) - To the Irish drunkard
Adventures You Can Handle (Portland, USA) - For Jimmy or Jamie
Little Anchovy-Shaped Happiness (Syracusa, Sicilia) - For Grandpa Panini
The DNA of Soup and Korean Cuisine (Firenze, Italy) - To Seonyeong
But the first time is only once (Seoul) - To my aunt in Seoul
I'll walk step by step on the white snow road (Maisan, Jinan) - To Y
No one travels alone (Milano, Italy) - To D
Angels have a face just like yours (Aix-en-Provence, France) - To you who doesn't even know your name
Forever Unripe Goodbye (LA, USA) - To Mikyung
Courage to Travel Another Way (Ubud, Bali) - To Sister Sohee
You are safe here (Portland, USA) - To the owner of Jang Salon
Off-season Regular Pledge (Cefalu, Sicilia) - To Senior Hana
I'll expand the sunny spot next to me a little (Jocheon, Jeju Island) - To the owner of Manchun Bookstore
Feeling like I've received a gift even after giving one (Kyoto, Japan) - To K
I didn't ask for this much (Portland, USA) - To Grandpa Paul
Epilogue - To You
The Man Who Turns Chance into Destiny (San Francisco, USA) - To You Who Has Never Met
The Moment I Lost My Destination (Gamakura, Japan) - To My Brother
Traveler's Promise (Bonnieux, France) - To B
A Star on the Forehead (Venezia, Italy) - To Gyu-seong
I came here to see all of this (Ragusa, Sicilia) - To Eunji
It will be a day of loneliness (Arles, France) - To the grandfather of Lourmarin
As long as we carry the soul of a traveler (Palermo, Sicilia) - to the owner of Dante's bookstore or Bisso Restaurant
The luck of traveling to the same city twice (Marvao, Portugal) - To Team Leader Park Woong-hyun
Nowhere but here (Lyon, France) - To Surim
Shipwrecked by Beauty (Porto, Portugal) - To the round, swaggering old man of Porto
After a few seasons (Aran islands, Ireland) - To Bomi
Love is delicious, Slancha! (Dublin, Ireland) - To the Irish drunkard
Adventures You Can Handle (Portland, USA) - For Jimmy or Jamie
Little Anchovy-Shaped Happiness (Syracusa, Sicilia) - For Grandpa Panini
The DNA of Soup and Korean Cuisine (Firenze, Italy) - To Seonyeong
But the first time is only once (Seoul) - To my aunt in Seoul
I'll walk step by step on the white snow road (Maisan, Jinan) - To Y
No one travels alone (Milano, Italy) - To D
Angels have a face just like yours (Aix-en-Provence, France) - To you who doesn't even know your name
Forever Unripe Goodbye (LA, USA) - To Mikyung
Courage to Travel Another Way (Ubud, Bali) - To Sister Sohee
You are safe here (Portland, USA) - To the owner of Jang Salon
Off-season Regular Pledge (Cefalu, Sicilia) - To Senior Hana
I'll expand the sunny spot next to me a little (Jocheon, Jeju Island) - To the owner of Manchun Bookstore
Feeling like I've received a gift even after giving one (Kyoto, Japan) - To K
I didn't ask for this much (Portland, USA) - To Grandpa Paul
Epilogue - To You
Into the book
I even yelled a little where no one could see me.
At times like that, I pedaled a little harder.
As the hem of the raincoat flapped more fiercely, the unfinished feelings of love that had followed me here, the burdensome expectations, the pressure to do well, and the tedious sense of responsibility all fell away.
Happiness began to rise like bread in that place.
How fortunate.
Because happiness is so easy.
Because I am the kind of person who can become happy this easily.
--- p.23-24
When I got off the train, the sea was right next to me.
There was no destination, but if you see the sea, in an instant, your destination becomes the sea.
Of course, Sunbae and Jeongmi's reactions were quick.
In an instant, he shouted, “Wow! It’s the sea!” and approached, and after a while, he looked at the hill on the left and said, “Shall we go and sit over there?”
I stayed one step behind and faithfully followed their impromptu plan.
Yet, no sense of anxiety or obligation clung to me.
As I said, there was no plan.
Because it was good anyway.
Because it was a bright and breezy foreign beach in late April, without the suffocating humidity that is typical of Japan, which seems to cling to every single hair.
--- p.32~33
A gondola at night.
That delicate moment.
That trembling emotion.
Maybe you bought that expensive ticket and went on that hardship-filled trip just to meet that one moment.
That one moment alone is enough to fulfill the meaning of the trip.
Of course, no one knows what that moment will be.
If you ask me what the use is, I'll just keep my mouth shut.
But no one can steal the stars of someone who has already experienced it.
That star is yours alone, and you don't need to explain it to anyone.
Every traveler has their own star that they live with on their forehead.
They say that even people who appear very ordinary on the outside have their own star on their foreheads.
The desert night, the back alleys of Paris, the fields at dawn in Jeju Island, a single line of music heard in an ordinary cafe on the street corner, the tears shed without realizing it in front of a painting are firmly established as stars.
I will never fall for the rest of my life.
Now that I've become a star like this.
My star was at the Pompidou Center in Paris, your star was in Venice at night.
--- p.57~58
Thank you.
This one sentence has become so long again.
I thought you would understand this long answer.
Just as I can never give up my writer's heart, you can't give up your bookstore's soul either.
Despite all those annoying questions, you insist on having a bookstore sign.
At this point, I feel like it was fate that he introduced me as a writer in front of the CEO.
Magical things happen to us.
It happens more often when I'm traveling.
We carry the soul of a traveler with us.
I am talking about the soul of a traveler who is willing to surrender, who ponders even the smallest questions, and who is sincere in every moment.
From today on, I also take the writer's soul with me.
It is up to me to decide how to nurture this soul.
I think I'll be talking about Dante's bookstore often.
To myself more than anyone else.
--- p.94
It's all blue outside the window right now.
The blue fog has taken over all the colors characteristic of the Ribeira district.
Red, yellow, and green are all holding their breath right now.
The sky is gradually turning pink.
As if responding to that color, the city lights are turning on one by one.
Soon people will forget the traces of the blue fog and begin to gather under the yellow lights.
Under those lights, you will begin to admire how beautiful this city is.
Because it is a city born with the destiny to be beautiful at any moment.
As the dark night passes and morning comes, the riverside is now the property of the birds.
Countless birds fly over the river, swirling the water and lapping the surface, creating a strange rhythm.
I'll leave the windows wide open from early morning.
Listening to that sound, I would gaze at the face of the Ribeira district, which had cleared completely, oblivious to the fog from the day before.
As if it were a face that would disappear if I turned my back for a moment, I would stand in front of that window even when applying a single drop of lotion.
I'll be there all the time, at night, at dawn, in the morning, in the afternoon, in the rain, in the fog, in the cloudy weather, and even when the lights start coming on in the evening.
Thanks to you, I will have many different faces of Porto.
--- p.129~130
Even after a brief conversation, everyone looked out at the sea.
Everyone slid into their own sea.
The sea that my thoughts arrived at was Haeundae when I was in my third year of high school.
After failing to get into the university I wanted to go to, whenever I felt like I was falling down, I would go to Haeundae Beach in the winter alone.
I didn't do anything.
I just sat on the sandy beach and looked at the ocean, then came back.
I don't know how many times this has happened.
I knew it instinctively.
That I need the comfort of the rough and clear sea, not the soft comfort of people.
That Haeundae in the winter, where there is no one, can provide such comfort.
But strangely enough, this sea has been a comfort to me today.
As I drank wine and looked at it for a long time, I felt a corner of my heart that had been tightly bound up melt away in the waves.
It's comforting even though I'm not upset or sad.
It was comforting to be patted on the back and told that everything was okay.
Isn't it amazing? The ocean really is.
There's sunshine, wine, and cheese.
Cefalù became heaven to me at that moment, thanks to their combined efforts to rescue me.
If this is not heaven, I am not confident that I will find another heaven on earth.
--- p.283~284
When the time comes when memories suddenly become urgent, pick up your pen again.
I'm writing a letter.
To you who loves to travel.
For you, who can't give up traveling.
At times like that, I pedaled a little harder.
As the hem of the raincoat flapped more fiercely, the unfinished feelings of love that had followed me here, the burdensome expectations, the pressure to do well, and the tedious sense of responsibility all fell away.
Happiness began to rise like bread in that place.
How fortunate.
Because happiness is so easy.
Because I am the kind of person who can become happy this easily.
--- p.23-24
When I got off the train, the sea was right next to me.
There was no destination, but if you see the sea, in an instant, your destination becomes the sea.
Of course, Sunbae and Jeongmi's reactions were quick.
In an instant, he shouted, “Wow! It’s the sea!” and approached, and after a while, he looked at the hill on the left and said, “Shall we go and sit over there?”
I stayed one step behind and faithfully followed their impromptu plan.
Yet, no sense of anxiety or obligation clung to me.
As I said, there was no plan.
Because it was good anyway.
Because it was a bright and breezy foreign beach in late April, without the suffocating humidity that is typical of Japan, which seems to cling to every single hair.
--- p.32~33
A gondola at night.
That delicate moment.
That trembling emotion.
Maybe you bought that expensive ticket and went on that hardship-filled trip just to meet that one moment.
That one moment alone is enough to fulfill the meaning of the trip.
Of course, no one knows what that moment will be.
If you ask me what the use is, I'll just keep my mouth shut.
But no one can steal the stars of someone who has already experienced it.
That star is yours alone, and you don't need to explain it to anyone.
Every traveler has their own star that they live with on their forehead.
They say that even people who appear very ordinary on the outside have their own star on their foreheads.
The desert night, the back alleys of Paris, the fields at dawn in Jeju Island, a single line of music heard in an ordinary cafe on the street corner, the tears shed without realizing it in front of a painting are firmly established as stars.
I will never fall for the rest of my life.
Now that I've become a star like this.
My star was at the Pompidou Center in Paris, your star was in Venice at night.
--- p.57~58
Thank you.
This one sentence has become so long again.
I thought you would understand this long answer.
Just as I can never give up my writer's heart, you can't give up your bookstore's soul either.
Despite all those annoying questions, you insist on having a bookstore sign.
At this point, I feel like it was fate that he introduced me as a writer in front of the CEO.
Magical things happen to us.
It happens more often when I'm traveling.
We carry the soul of a traveler with us.
I am talking about the soul of a traveler who is willing to surrender, who ponders even the smallest questions, and who is sincere in every moment.
From today on, I also take the writer's soul with me.
It is up to me to decide how to nurture this soul.
I think I'll be talking about Dante's bookstore often.
To myself more than anyone else.
--- p.94
It's all blue outside the window right now.
The blue fog has taken over all the colors characteristic of the Ribeira district.
Red, yellow, and green are all holding their breath right now.
The sky is gradually turning pink.
As if responding to that color, the city lights are turning on one by one.
Soon people will forget the traces of the blue fog and begin to gather under the yellow lights.
Under those lights, you will begin to admire how beautiful this city is.
Because it is a city born with the destiny to be beautiful at any moment.
As the dark night passes and morning comes, the riverside is now the property of the birds.
Countless birds fly over the river, swirling the water and lapping the surface, creating a strange rhythm.
I'll leave the windows wide open from early morning.
Listening to that sound, I would gaze at the face of the Ribeira district, which had cleared completely, oblivious to the fog from the day before.
As if it were a face that would disappear if I turned my back for a moment, I would stand in front of that window even when applying a single drop of lotion.
I'll be there all the time, at night, at dawn, in the morning, in the afternoon, in the rain, in the fog, in the cloudy weather, and even when the lights start coming on in the evening.
Thanks to you, I will have many different faces of Porto.
--- p.129~130
Even after a brief conversation, everyone looked out at the sea.
Everyone slid into their own sea.
The sea that my thoughts arrived at was Haeundae when I was in my third year of high school.
After failing to get into the university I wanted to go to, whenever I felt like I was falling down, I would go to Haeundae Beach in the winter alone.
I didn't do anything.
I just sat on the sandy beach and looked at the ocean, then came back.
I don't know how many times this has happened.
I knew it instinctively.
That I need the comfort of the rough and clear sea, not the soft comfort of people.
That Haeundae in the winter, where there is no one, can provide such comfort.
But strangely enough, this sea has been a comfort to me today.
As I drank wine and looked at it for a long time, I felt a corner of my heart that had been tightly bound up melt away in the waves.
It's comforting even though I'm not upset or sad.
It was comforting to be patted on the back and told that everything was okay.
Isn't it amazing? The ocean really is.
There's sunshine, wine, and cheese.
Cefalù became heaven to me at that moment, thanks to their combined efforts to rescue me.
If this is not heaven, I am not confident that I will find another heaven on earth.
--- p.283~284
When the time comes when memories suddenly become urgent, pick up your pen again.
I'm writing a letter.
To you who loves to travel.
For you, who can't give up traveling.
--- p.333~334
Publisher's Review
Kim Min-cheol's long-awaited new travel essay, following "Travel Every Day of the Week."
“I am writing to you from afar, from a distant time.”
A vivid record of travel moments and precious connections in life.
Kim Min-cheol, who has created unforgettable copy in people's hearts, such as SK Telecom's "Towards the People" and e-Convenient World's "Sincerity Creates," is also loved by readers as an essayist who contains his own unique emotions about things that will disappear with time.
In this book, at the moment when the journey stops, his letters sent from past travel destinations arrive safely to you today.
Each page is filled with shy affection for those who met each other as if by fate during a single trip, and for the precious people who still stand by your side.
Even when I was buried in the daily grind of countless questions and choices, imagining the hypothetical, "If I ever get there," was the most effective panacea.
One day, as I was going back and forth between pessimism and optimism, having lost the comfort of leaving without any plans for my next vacation, I saw a video of people singing on a balcony.
I thought of the people I believed would always be there waiting for me, and the scenery I longed for.
I thought of us, who didn't hesitate to take risks in unfamiliar cities, and who always readily expressed gratitude to those who were always the first to lend a hand in embarrassing situations.
For us now who cannot forget who we were back then, Kim Min-cheol decided to begin a journey through time and memories.
Here, I wanted to find a way to be happy together.
For those of us who are just looking through photos of past trips on our phones, and more than anything, to gather our own share of hope.
“I wanted to write a letter.
I wanted to remember the best moments in the most affectionate way.
I wanted to carefully fold up all the sincerity of that moment and place it in your hands, and bring the present me to the warmth of the past.
So that I don't forget the air, the sunshine, the wind, the smiles, and the trees there.
“So that our journey continues even when travel has disappeared.”
_ From the prologue, “A journey from a distant time and place”
Only after losing my trip overnight did I have to reflect on what 'leaving' in the past meant.
In "We Can't Forget Ourselves," Kim Min-cheol walks through the time he realizes that the precious connections he has made have led him to where he is today.
You will recall the moments of your travels where you found hints about the direction of your future life everywhere, the memories of warm hospitality that you had long forgotten, and the sights and feelings you felt at that travel destination.
To us who were surprised every time as if it were the first time and happy every time as if it would never happen again,
I hope that by the end of this letter journey, you'll have a stronger heart.
Why do I miss traveling so much?
After spending hours cramped into a cramped airplane seat, I wandered around on a street where no one knew me, looking for an empty room, and when I finally arrived, the rain clouds obscured the spectacle I had longed to see, making it difficult to see it.
It often happens that a torrential downpour pours down several times a day, and then when I turn around and see the sky clear up as if nothing had happened, I am left feeling bewildered.
But, strangely enough, in this situation of no plan, where things are so different from what was planned and expectations are bound to go astray, we keep laughing.
Something deep inside my heart rises.
As the time approaches when I can no longer delay within the schedule that allows me to stay, I choose to ride my bike even in the rain.
In a small town near Tokyo where I arrived without any information, I drink beer while looking out at the sea without wondering about anything.
Riding the night gondola, I stayed in the dark peace, and then, before the breathtaking beauty that appeared before my eyes, I shed tears without realizing it.
Just as I was about to begin my journey in the city I had just arrived in, I was struck by an unexpected injury, and the winery tour I had been looking forward to was canceled.
Yet, we move willingly to be happy while traveling.
Rather than being discouraged by misfortunes like “a wrong map, a missed bus, a mistaken time, and rain that falls unexpectedly (page 25),” I become a traveler who willingly turns coincidence into destiny.
Because while riding a bike in the rain, all the unsettled emotions, burdensome expectations, and pressure to perform well just fall away.
As the sun sets on the hill where I was casually sitting and drinking beer, I come face to face with Mt. Fuji.
Because the music that played at that moment will instantly transport you to that moment of the trip every time you listen to it.
Because the white light of St. Mark's Square that appears before your eyes when riding a gondola at night becomes your own star that no one can steal.
Instead of visiting Porto's wineries, you'll have the luxury of watching the distinctively colored landscape outside your window change from blue to pink and then yellow.
It's about forcibly turning the steering wheel of unhappiness and heading towards happiness.
Amazingly, sometimes in those moments something magical happens.
An unintentional squeak can suddenly lead to perfection.
Then I'm willing to believe that coincidence is fate.
I'm willing to believe that this is an event that some profound being has meticulously prepared for me.
It couldn't be this perfect if it wasn't fate.
(…) I hope that when unexpected misfortunes pile up little by little on your trip, you will suddenly remember this letter.
Put your favorite music on and face that misfortune head on.
May we be able to turn coincidence into destiny.
And I hope you can cherish that moment for a long time after your trip.
(Page 27)
Meanwhile, our journey, like life, is always completed by people.
In the Lourmarin inn, where there were only two guests, I found myself looking out for a Dutch painter grandfather and making sure they weren't lonely; in the presence of a person who willingly contacted nearby hotels and made sure a discouraged stranger, unable to find a place to stay, could stay safely; and in the presence of people who rushed to help before I could even ask for help in an emergency, I found myself smiling so brightly in front of strangers I never knew I could.
Also, when the owner of a restaurant that still has the same sign from its bookstore days asks me a question, I feel something I didn't know I had.
That moment when I jumped over the days of hesitation when I had long wanted to become a writer, but had not yet declared myself a 'writer'.
In the alleyways of Palermo, bathed in the Mediterranean sun, I encounter such a strong and vivid dream.
I think I'll probably spend the rest of my life asking myself the same answer I gave today.
To me, who has become small in front of writing, to my heart, which has shrunk in front of the enviable writing of others, to the impossible desire to write something that surpasses mine.
I will live saying, “Let’s write, let’s keep writing.”
(Page 94)
A trip to a foreign country filled with people who don't know me brings back, one by one, the people who made me who I am today.
From my aunt and uncle who made my first trip to Seoul to see a Michael Jackson concert when I was sixteen, to my dear friend Y who helped me get through my senior year of high school, whom I miss and am grateful for, to my older sister Sohee who shows a generous heart that willingly embraces others, to the owner of Manchun Bookstore who keeps people by my side through fate and pours his heart into them, all of these precious relationships that make me picture the person I want to be in the future.
Perhaps travel is a time to rediscover and miss those close to us, whom we never knew how precious they were.
I hope that each time I read these letters, overflowing with the heartfelt affection in the book, it will be a journey that will allow me to reminisce about a certain era of my life.
So, while reading this book, may you let go of your stuffy feelings and simply enjoy the good, and may it be a joyful journey to face yourself, free from anxiety and obligation, and become infinitely more generous!
“I am writing to you from afar, from a distant time.”
A vivid record of travel moments and precious connections in life.
Kim Min-cheol, who has created unforgettable copy in people's hearts, such as SK Telecom's "Towards the People" and e-Convenient World's "Sincerity Creates," is also loved by readers as an essayist who contains his own unique emotions about things that will disappear with time.
In this book, at the moment when the journey stops, his letters sent from past travel destinations arrive safely to you today.
Each page is filled with shy affection for those who met each other as if by fate during a single trip, and for the precious people who still stand by your side.
Even when I was buried in the daily grind of countless questions and choices, imagining the hypothetical, "If I ever get there," was the most effective panacea.
One day, as I was going back and forth between pessimism and optimism, having lost the comfort of leaving without any plans for my next vacation, I saw a video of people singing on a balcony.
I thought of the people I believed would always be there waiting for me, and the scenery I longed for.
I thought of us, who didn't hesitate to take risks in unfamiliar cities, and who always readily expressed gratitude to those who were always the first to lend a hand in embarrassing situations.
For us now who cannot forget who we were back then, Kim Min-cheol decided to begin a journey through time and memories.
Here, I wanted to find a way to be happy together.
For those of us who are just looking through photos of past trips on our phones, and more than anything, to gather our own share of hope.
“I wanted to write a letter.
I wanted to remember the best moments in the most affectionate way.
I wanted to carefully fold up all the sincerity of that moment and place it in your hands, and bring the present me to the warmth of the past.
So that I don't forget the air, the sunshine, the wind, the smiles, and the trees there.
“So that our journey continues even when travel has disappeared.”
_ From the prologue, “A journey from a distant time and place”
Only after losing my trip overnight did I have to reflect on what 'leaving' in the past meant.
In "We Can't Forget Ourselves," Kim Min-cheol walks through the time he realizes that the precious connections he has made have led him to where he is today.
You will recall the moments of your travels where you found hints about the direction of your future life everywhere, the memories of warm hospitality that you had long forgotten, and the sights and feelings you felt at that travel destination.
To us who were surprised every time as if it were the first time and happy every time as if it would never happen again,
I hope that by the end of this letter journey, you'll have a stronger heart.
Why do I miss traveling so much?
After spending hours cramped into a cramped airplane seat, I wandered around on a street where no one knew me, looking for an empty room, and when I finally arrived, the rain clouds obscured the spectacle I had longed to see, making it difficult to see it.
It often happens that a torrential downpour pours down several times a day, and then when I turn around and see the sky clear up as if nothing had happened, I am left feeling bewildered.
But, strangely enough, in this situation of no plan, where things are so different from what was planned and expectations are bound to go astray, we keep laughing.
Something deep inside my heart rises.
As the time approaches when I can no longer delay within the schedule that allows me to stay, I choose to ride my bike even in the rain.
In a small town near Tokyo where I arrived without any information, I drink beer while looking out at the sea without wondering about anything.
Riding the night gondola, I stayed in the dark peace, and then, before the breathtaking beauty that appeared before my eyes, I shed tears without realizing it.
Just as I was about to begin my journey in the city I had just arrived in, I was struck by an unexpected injury, and the winery tour I had been looking forward to was canceled.
Yet, we move willingly to be happy while traveling.
Rather than being discouraged by misfortunes like “a wrong map, a missed bus, a mistaken time, and rain that falls unexpectedly (page 25),” I become a traveler who willingly turns coincidence into destiny.
Because while riding a bike in the rain, all the unsettled emotions, burdensome expectations, and pressure to perform well just fall away.
As the sun sets on the hill where I was casually sitting and drinking beer, I come face to face with Mt. Fuji.
Because the music that played at that moment will instantly transport you to that moment of the trip every time you listen to it.
Because the white light of St. Mark's Square that appears before your eyes when riding a gondola at night becomes your own star that no one can steal.
Instead of visiting Porto's wineries, you'll have the luxury of watching the distinctively colored landscape outside your window change from blue to pink and then yellow.
It's about forcibly turning the steering wheel of unhappiness and heading towards happiness.
Amazingly, sometimes in those moments something magical happens.
An unintentional squeak can suddenly lead to perfection.
Then I'm willing to believe that coincidence is fate.
I'm willing to believe that this is an event that some profound being has meticulously prepared for me.
It couldn't be this perfect if it wasn't fate.
(…) I hope that when unexpected misfortunes pile up little by little on your trip, you will suddenly remember this letter.
Put your favorite music on and face that misfortune head on.
May we be able to turn coincidence into destiny.
And I hope you can cherish that moment for a long time after your trip.
(Page 27)
Meanwhile, our journey, like life, is always completed by people.
In the Lourmarin inn, where there were only two guests, I found myself looking out for a Dutch painter grandfather and making sure they weren't lonely; in the presence of a person who willingly contacted nearby hotels and made sure a discouraged stranger, unable to find a place to stay, could stay safely; and in the presence of people who rushed to help before I could even ask for help in an emergency, I found myself smiling so brightly in front of strangers I never knew I could.
Also, when the owner of a restaurant that still has the same sign from its bookstore days asks me a question, I feel something I didn't know I had.
That moment when I jumped over the days of hesitation when I had long wanted to become a writer, but had not yet declared myself a 'writer'.
In the alleyways of Palermo, bathed in the Mediterranean sun, I encounter such a strong and vivid dream.
I think I'll probably spend the rest of my life asking myself the same answer I gave today.
To me, who has become small in front of writing, to my heart, which has shrunk in front of the enviable writing of others, to the impossible desire to write something that surpasses mine.
I will live saying, “Let’s write, let’s keep writing.”
(Page 94)
A trip to a foreign country filled with people who don't know me brings back, one by one, the people who made me who I am today.
From my aunt and uncle who made my first trip to Seoul to see a Michael Jackson concert when I was sixteen, to my dear friend Y who helped me get through my senior year of high school, whom I miss and am grateful for, to my older sister Sohee who shows a generous heart that willingly embraces others, to the owner of Manchun Bookstore who keeps people by my side through fate and pours his heart into them, all of these precious relationships that make me picture the person I want to be in the future.
Perhaps travel is a time to rediscover and miss those close to us, whom we never knew how precious they were.
I hope that each time I read these letters, overflowing with the heartfelt affection in the book, it will be a journey that will allow me to reminisce about a certain era of my life.
So, while reading this book, may you let go of your stuffy feelings and simply enjoy the good, and may it be a joyful journey to face yourself, free from anxiety and obligation, and become infinitely more generous!
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: April 5, 2021
- Page count, weight, size: 336 pages | 406g | 118*188*21mm
- ISBN13: 9791191248111
- ISBN10: 1191248119
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